TCM Schedule for Saturday, February 17, 2018 -- 31 Days of Oscar: Best Supporting Actress Winners

[Staph]

Today's 31 Days of Oscar takes us to the first of our acting categories -- Best Supporting Actress, Part One, with Part Two continuing on Monday, February 19. Interesting fact -- the supporting actor and actress awards were not given until the 1937 ceremony, for films made in 1936. The first winner was Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse (1936). So now you know! Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- I REMEMBER MAMA (1948)
Norwegian immigrants face the trials of family life in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka
BW-134 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Oskar Homolka, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara Bel Geddes, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ellen Corby, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Nicholas Musuraca

Irene Dunne worked with dialect coach Judith Sater for two months to perfect her Norwegian accent. Dunne became so immersed in getting her character's voice down that she used the accent around her home with her family.


8:30 AM -- ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO (1940)
A French nobleman falls in love with his children's governess.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn
BW-143 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Barbara O'Neil, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Picture

Barbara O'Neil was extremely unhappy with how her character was portrayed on screen; she felt that the Duchesse should be less glamorous and much older looking so that it would make more sense that her character would have more reason to be jealous of the much younger Henriette.


11:00 AM -- A PATCH OF BLUE (1965)
A blind white girl falls in love with a black man.
Dir: Guy Green
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman
BW-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Shelley Winters

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Hartman, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- George W. Davis, Urie McCleary, Henry Grace and Charles S. Thompson, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Jerry Goldsmith

Shelley Winters hated her role as "Rose-Ann," primarily because, as a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, she was very uncomfortable playing a racist. Winters was actually overwhelmed and speechless the night she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.


1:00 PM -- CACTUS FLOWER (1969)
A philandering dentist asks his assistant to help him deal with his latest girlfriend.
Dir: Gene Saks
Cast: Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn
C-104 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Goldie Hawn (Goldie Hawn was not present at the awards ceremony. Raquel Welch accepted the award on her behalf.)

Goldie Hawn received an 'Introducing' credit. However, this was not her first film; she had a small role in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) billed as Goldie Jeanne.


3:00 PM -- SAYONARA (1957)
American soldiers in post-war Japan defy convention when they fall in love with local women.
Dir: Joshua Logan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Patricia Owens, Red Buttons
C-147 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Red Buttons, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Miyoshi Umeki, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Ted Haworth and Robert Priestley, and Best Sound, Recording -- George Groves (Warner Bros. SSD)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Marlon Brando, Best Director -- Joshua Logan, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Paul Osborn, Best Cinematography -- Ellsworth Fredericks, Best Film Editing -- Arthur P. Schmidt and Philip W. Anderson, and Best Picture

Audrey Hepburn was offered the role of a Japanese bride opposite Marlon Brando but turned it down. She explained that she "couldn't possibly play an Oriental. No one would believe me; they'd laugh. It's a lovely script, however I know what I can and can't do. And if you did persuade me, you would regret it, because I would be terrible." (Sometimes Hollywood is just horrifying - I would have thought that yellowface had died out decades before this. - Staph)


5:45 PM -- EAST OF EDEN (1955)
Two brothers compete for their father's approval and a woman's love.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey
C-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jo Van Fleet

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Dean (This was the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history.), Best Director -- Elia Kazan, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Paul Osborn

The film only covers the latter part of the novel. Elia Kazan later said he didn't like the first part of the book, which deals with the youth and marriage of the characters played by Raymond Massey and Jo Van Fleet. It would also have been unwieldy to adapt the multi-generational story. Around this same time, the director had been thinking about the importance of unity in a work of art, and reflected on screenwriter John Howard Lawson's notion that unity comes from the climax. Kazan decided to focus on only the final section of the novel, dealing with the conflict between Cal and his father and brother. He then had to approach the thin-skinned John Steinbeck gently and tactfully about making changes to the story. He also had to approach Steinbeck with his plan to bring in another writer to work on the adaptation with Kazan. The author genuinely liked and trusted Kazan and allowed him to proceed without interference.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: 31 DAYS OF OSCAR: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS WINNERS



8:00 PM -- FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943)
A U.S. mercenary and an army of peasants fight for Spain.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff
BW-165 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Katina Paxinou

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gary Cooper, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Ingrid Bergman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Akim Tamiroff, Best Cinematography, Color -- Ray Rennahan, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Hans Dreier, Haldane Douglas and Bertram C. Granger, Best Film Editing -- Sherman Todd and John F. Link Sr., Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Victor Young, and Best Picture

This film saved the famous love song "As Time Goes By" from being removed from Casablanca (1942). Ingrid Bergman began filming this movie immediately after completing "Casablanca". For this role, her hair was cut short. Meanwhile, for "Casablanca", Warner Brothers wanted to substitute another song for "As Time Goes By" and re-shoot some scenes with Bergman. However, since her hair had been cut, there would be a problem with continuity (even if Bergman wore a wig), so the idea was dropped.


11:00 PM -- A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984)
A false rape charge threatens British-Indian relations.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft
C-164 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Peggy Ashcroft (Peggy Ashcroft was not present at the awards ceremony. Angela Lansbury accepted the award on her behalf.), and Best Music, Original Score -- Maurice Jarre

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Davis, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- David Lean, Best Cinematography -- Ernest Day, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- John Box and Hugh Scaife, Best Costume Design -- Judy Moorcroft, Best Sound -- Graham V. Hartstone, Nicolas Le Messurier, Michael A. Carter and John W. Mitchell, Best Film Editing -- David Lean, and Best Picture

When she was in her 50s, Peggy Ashcroft attended the last performance of the theatrical version of "A Passage to India" and met E.M. Forster. He told her that one day she would play Mrs. Moore, something she thought very unlikely at the time because she was so much younger than the character.


2:00 AM -- BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
The legendary bank robbers run riot in the South of the 1930s.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
C-111 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Estelle Parsons, and Best Cinematography -- Burnett Guffey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Warren Beatty, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Hackman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael J. Pollard, Best Director -- Arthur Penn. Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- David Newman and Robert Benton, Best Costume Design -- Theadora Van Runkle, and Best Picture

Since this was Estelle Parsons' first film, she was amazed at the extent of the special effects. When she and Gene Hackman attempt an escape from a motel room using a mattress for protection from police gunfire, Parsons was required to crank a concealed wheel that sequentially detonated squibs embedded in the foam, simulating police bullet hits.


4:00 AM -- SHAMPOO (1975)
A hairdresser expresses his fear of commitment by seducing his female clients.
Dir: Hal Ashby
Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Lee Grant
C-110 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lee Grant

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Warden, Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Robert Towne and Warren Beatty, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell and George Gaines

Loosely based on "The Country Wife," a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley, whose protagonist Horner feigns impotence in order to be allowed into the company of married women, who he then seduces. George in "Shampoo" would be considered non-threatening due to the stereotype that hair-dressers are gay, such as the scene in Jackie's bathroom when Lester walks in and the bistro sequence when George is fluffing Lester's hair. "Shampoo" only retains a distant reflection of the Horner character, but reportedly, the screenplay was inspired by the 1969 Chichester Festival production, according to a 2003 edition of the play edited by James Ogden.

[Glorfindel]

1. "I would have thought that yellowface had died out decades before this. - Staph"

Horrifying, indeed. But "yellowface" was still alive and well in 1961, when Mickey Rooney portrayed Mr. Yunioshi in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

[CBHagman]

2. That's an amazing story about Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

Between A Passage to India and The Jewel in the Crown she really was a presence in literary adaptations during the 1980s. I had no idea she'd actually met E.M. Forster, though.